Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-08-07
GEM HUNTING.
INTERESTING TRICKS or THE LAPIDARl ;
TRADE
Men Made Poor b. Supposed Discoveries Of Priceless
Diamonds Why the Diamond Expert
Wears NJ Jewelry
Whatever.
N-r IurE T-IL,D...

his riugless fingers and strokiug his chain
less waistcoat, Il don't wear any iewelry,
whatever
And what is the reason OF that" asked
the reporter.
simply that 1 don't approve Of those
who ATE in the trade doing so. For one
thing. it causes bother with customers,
who are likely to compare what you have
On with what YOU offer them, aud alto
gether | think il is better To do without IT,
| have gold cum buttons, as you can see:
but think I'll discard them, too. "
Are any native diamonds worn IN this
country
well, only about 100 American dia-
Imonds have been found rs vet; but dare
SAY a few are worn here. There would be
plenty il all the alleged diamond finds had
been genuine Why, there have been at
| least 100, 900 bogus finds. Well known
! firms like Tiffany X Co. are perfectly pes
/ tered by geniuses who can't tell q bit OF
cut glass from gems OF the first water
/ Tiffany x Co get Is many as ~ OF 30 let
tiers OF inquiry in u week. "
"But the genuine finds were mostly dis
covered by accident, weren't they
That's true enough The first Ameri-
can diamond OninoOr rs it was chris
tened. was picked up at Manchester, Va,
/ in l-j5 by Il laborer Then you will re-
member the native diamond that came to
| Tnauy's about year ago. They sent
| their minerolOgist, George F. Kun, To
| inquire about it recently, and he learned
/ that it had been found by Il small boy
called Willie Christie, on the Alfred
| Bright farm, near Dysartville, Me
| Dowell county, s. G., l6i miles
from Morranton, and L. from Marion lie
got il on The side OF 4 little hill, near
spring. He Was attracted by its lustrr,
took 1t home and put 1t on shelf for two
weeks Then he showed II to village
sturckeepcr man who had been III the
South African diamond mines was called,
aud he Immediately tried To buy it, begin
ming by Offering -, and finally Offering
$50. But he didn't get it, and it was sent
to Tiffany X Co, and bought by them Tor u
/ handsome sum.
Are people who are well informed on
| the subject ever mislrd by a stOne?i
| well. some are fooled who, You would
| think. should know better. Now, there
was a certain gcOlogist-l wont mention
| his name, for he's dead-and he once sent
| a common paste imitation to a ieweler rs
genuine. But could tell you same queer
I things about him. lie was kind Of John
/ the + tptist OF diamonds lie had IN idea
| that there were diamonds at the place
where he lived, and he wasted good deal
L in
and in prOphesying about ii. He would
get up on stump and shout. IA truly
and ~ surely rs the laws OF nature are I'M
mutablr, 50 surely will diamonds be found
/ in this here locality But they haven't
breuyr demonstrating cranks would
make more money in dry goods. They
always remind me Of the old school-bOok
story of Whang, the Chinese miller. Old
| Whaug ran grinding mill in the tlOwcry
| land no pun intended, and he fell
| To dreaming about lot of treasure buried
| beneath the foundation stone of his
old mill For two nights he laid the blame
ON heavy supper of birds nests; but the
| third might he dreamed that identical
| dream once more; 50 he banged out Of bed
and yelled. You GET TO Mrs. W. The
| house i coming down, and We re going up.
| / shall be mandariIn as sure as my
names Whaug" Well, he didn't rest till
/ the place was lrvelled. Lastly the ioun-
dation stone WAS diSembedded. There was
nary treasure; so seeing that he had
brought beggary ON himself, he hanged
| himself with his own pigtail.
GLOW did he manage thar
ooh, | don't know. Cut IT of first,
most likely That's not the point. It's
! the moral of the tale that's worth remem
beriug. Now here are some stories about
bogus finds They have their moral too,
and think | would make IT, Don't give
| a eats lmprecatiOu for the opinion Of the
average local country expert. They
| have caused no end OF trouble, anxiety
aud expense by their hasty aud halt
trained judgments Some years ago
a poor fellow called James NJ.
smith, ploughmau ut GibsOnvillc
! Guiltord county, turned up what he
| thought was gem with his ploughshare
| He took it to one of those local experts,
/ who went through some farce of cXamin-
| ing il with a microscope, and sand 1t con
/ tanned various small diamonds. Oicourse,
| the finder WAS oyerioyed, and thought he
was going to make lots Of money. He took
a trip to New York, and was at = jewellers
ut oclocll in the morning, only to learn
| that his treasure was pretty quartz peb-
bic, worth perhaps about -.
That was hard luck
"Ye; but he's not the only victim of a
uuartz-with L, OF course. | know of 4
| lady who kepta supposed diamond for 80
years and then was rudely disabused by
| being told by IN expert that II was only
quartz crystal
lis there cvera diamond furore' over
Il supposed tind;'
"Oh, yes; it's rs bad as the gold fever
and turns ucighborhOod up side down
while it lasts. About a year ago the peo-
pie of Daubury, ~ c., had time they
won't forget in a hurry. James Pepper,
farmer there, picked up u dlamOnd-like
stone while he was plOughing. These
finds are made that way often. He sub
mitted it to the local ieweller, and was
overwhelmed with delight to learn that he
was the possesSoT of a fine American dia.
mUud worth at least $1,000 Well, sir,
the whole village went a-ploughing Tor
diamonds. The farmers reapcd fancy
prices for allowing enthusiasts to scratch
! their land; and whenever hen made a
scratch aud sat down in it she got no peace
/ till all the dlamOnd-hunters had examined
! il. II WAS lively TOR the hens, and they
were har,lsSed ~ aud had to get into so
many scrapcS in a day that they must have
wished that they could 90 to pot at once
and he done with. All OF this resulted in
plenty OF dust but no DIAMONDS, and when
at lust old man Pepper sent his jewel to
New York aud got back word from an eN-
pert that il was quartz crystal, there was
a bigger w-d'ye-do than a bank failure
makes. | think there'll he no more dia-
monds from Danhury'
and it is not only diamonds that peo-
pie get left on, continued the expert,
tanning himself such thing as a six
ounce ruby would cause considerable
commotlou. None OF that size has been
found vet; hut james W. Thomas of FL
more county, Alabama, recently thought